


in black ink my love may still shine bright

by PandaPaladin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Fluff, supercorp ft. falling in love with each other's handwriting and badly drawn doodles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 13:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20436779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaPaladin/pseuds/PandaPaladin
Summary: On an awfully slow day at CatCo, Kara writes on her desk to complain about her work life to nobody in particular. When she comes back from a break, someone with messy, loopy penmanship writes back to her.





	in black ink my love may still shine bright

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda based on the fact I had a "desk buddy" in freshman yr of high school (because having calculus first period sucks) and I somehow only ever write when it's 4am and I'm delirious with sleep, so take this trash fic as u will!! And also I spent an hour wistfully looking at Katie McGrath's handwriting so

“_Shoot! _ Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot—”

  
  
Kara burst into CatCo, her shoulder feeling sprained from ramming into the heavy door, but she honestly couldn’t care less about it. In one hand was her usual coffee order, times three, and her other hand balanced five different manila folders for the newest article she was supposed to write maybe, perhaps, a couple hours ago?

“Hey— Kara!” Winn blinked at her as she whizzed passed him. “Nice to see you too?”

“Sorry! Sorry! I’m busy!” Kara called behind her shoulder. She said a million excuses to the unfortunate people she bumped into or cut in front of, her breathing already hitched in her chest. Her legs moved her along the office from muscle memory, and Kara was very, very thankful for it.

When she arrived at her desk, she messily dropped her folders with an inward wince. She almost swore out loud when she accidentally caught Snapper’s look from across the room. He was up on his feet in an instant, ready to berate her for the very thing that Kara was afraid of.

She sat down heavily on her chair, straightening her back as much as possible and turning on her laptop to pretend that her heart wasn’t beating a mile a minute. 

“Ponytail!”

She winced inwardly. “Yes, sir?” 

“Where’s your article?” he asked her, his voice sharp and impatient. It made Kara want to slide into her chair and hide herself from the world, considering that his voice was loud enough that _ everyone _in their vicinity was looking at her with looks of pity. “Or are your glasses so outdated that you can’t read a timestamp anymore?”

“It’s— I submitted it this morning,” she said as evenly as she could, then added, “sir” when he glowered at her over his glasses. 

He looked at her for a moment, a hand on her desk. Then he glanced at the stack of folders beside his hand, and sneered. “Next time, don’t fall asleep on the job,” he warned her. Removing his sweaty palms from her desk, he told her as he left, “It’ll be the seventh time I fire you and it’s giving me too much whiplash.”

“It won’t happen again,” she promised steadily.

Snapper regarded her with his usual scowl, then made his way back to his desk. When he turned his back on her, Kara melted into her chair with a sharp exhale.

Winn laughed behind her. “I think you’re tied with the new guy for the 'make Snapper yell' record,” he mused. Kara craned her neck backwards, squinting at the upside down look of her friend. He had his arms crossed, his usual button-up messily done and his “winning” smile was plastered on his face.

“Aren’t you supposed to be back at your desk?” she groaned. She sat up, rubbing at her eyes beneath her glasses before spinning her chair fully to look at him. “You know? Doing the job you’re paid to do?”

“What, and miss out on checking in with my best work friend in the entire world?” Winn put a hand on his heart in feigned betrayal. “That hurts, Kara.”

Kara just snorted. She plucked a pencil from her little tin can next to her laptop and pointed it at him. “The longer you stay here, the more lectures Snapper is going to give me about ‘being chained to your job will be the best thing in the world.’”

Winn uncrossed his arms and leaned his hip against the edge of her desk. He gave her a little pitying smile, then bid her goodbye to ensure Kara doesn’t accidentally get fired for the second time that month. When he left and was out of sight, Kara slumped on her chair. 

She exhaled heavily, rubbing at her eyes again with a sluggish vigor. _ What if I just married into a rich family and become one of those women that do tapestries for a hobby? _ she thought bitterly. It wasn’t a _ completely _ senseless thing to think. There was a new guy at her job, Mike or Mark or something, that had been trying to get drinks with her for _ months. _

Then there was also the fact that her sister hadn’t been able to call her for the last two weeks because of her work. Kara was happy for her, ecstatic even. But not being able to dump all her problems on Alex like they used to was taking a bigger toll than she thought. She could be hauling a two hundred pound bag over her shoulder and it wouldn’t be heavy enough to unstiffen the weight on her shoulders.

She tapped her pencil on her desk incessantly, biting her lip as she stared at an empty document. Interview someone, write down twenty pages of notes, narrow it into a two page paper for Snapper, edit it, and then Snapper tells her to redo the entire thing— lather, rinse, and repeat.

Kara loved working as a reporter. Being able to tell other people’s stories and use a pen against the sword was a breath of fresh air from working as an around the clock assistant for Miss Grant. But sometimes, she just had _ really _shitty days.

It was Snapper sending her an email in all capitals about how her work was sloppily written that possessed her hand to grip the twirling pencil properly. She didn’t even use pencils that often, but there was something about writing with graphite that drew her in. She used to doodle right on her desk when she was too bored or too stressed, always erasing it with a good rubber eraser she kept in her drawer before Snapper could see a glimpse of it. 

It reminded her of being in high school, honestly, when the physics lectures were too long for her to pay attention and writing on the wooden desks was the best thing in the world. It was relieving. Comforting.

Instead of doodling, she wrote a little message. It was something she wanted to say to her sister, when Alex wasn’t too busy kicking ass somewhere in an old alleyway. Or maybe even Winn. Or anyone that was willing to listen about her awful day. 

_ I hate my job. I wish I could just get superpowers and fly around in a red cape. Miss Grant would probably name me Supergirl or something. _

“Kara!”

“I— yes, hi! I’m— here, right here,” Kara stammered loudly. On reflex, she covered most of her message by placing her laptop on top. She grabbed her pencil when it started to roll off the desk.

“Get to Lord Technologies, will you? He’s doing a press conference at five and I need a scoop on it ASAP,” Snapper told her. When Kara only stared, he snapped his fingers in a familiar fashion. “Get a move on, Ponytail!”

Without another word, Kara sputtered another reply and grabbed her things, including her laptop. She stopped briefly to stare at the slightly smudged handwriting on her desk, then thought better of it. Nobody will really care, nor see it for that matter. _ I’ll draw something next to it after, _she thought sadly. 

* * *

Kara returned back to CatCo with aching fingers. She slung her purse over the back of her chair and sat down, bouncing slightly. She reigned herself closer to her desk, tucking a strand out of hair out of her face. Winn wasn’t there to bother her, unfortunately, because today was Tuesday and Tuesdays meant one of her only friends at work was leaving her behind early.

She slid out her laptop from her big purse and fired it up, already despising the idea of writing out a boring report on Maxwell Lord’s newest microchip. _ Was it a microchip? _she mused. She’ll just have to find out when looking back at her sloppy notes.

Gray writing caught her attention, hidden well underneath her laptop. She sighed through her nose and pulled out her drawer to get an eraser, abandoning the idea of procrastination for once in her life.

She stopped dead in her tracks when her other hand pushed her laptop aside to get a full view of her writing, but then saw handwriting that clearly wasn’t hers underneath. It was loopy and every letter was connected, written in the same graphite. It was a little messy, though nothing compared to Kara’s after a long day of writing things down at a conference. 

Kara’s blood ran cold and she quickly slammed her drawer shut, her eraser gripped tightly in one hand. 

_ Sorry to hear about your job, Supergirl. But I think a cape would be too much, don’t you think? _

Despite herself, she had to let out a little laugh. She just _ had _ to. At least she knew it wasn’t Snapper— her boss would never write something like that. Though the former hypothesis was gladly out the window, Kara had a million more questions. Who is this? Why did they write back? Why were they at _ her _desk?

Her eyes snapped an inch downward, where another message was written out for her in smaller writing near the lip of her desk, closest to Kara. _ P.S. I hope you don’t mind me writing back. I needed to sit down for a while and saw what you wrote. If this wasn’t meant for me, let’s forget this and never talk about it again. _

When she let out a second chuckle, a coworker next to her looked up to stare at her with a quizzical look. Kara only made a face at him and he rolled his eyes, diving back into his work. 

For some reason, she felt lighter than before. She was still a little suspicious, but this was _ literally _the best case scenario for her since high school. She always wrote hello on desks expecting answers back, and no one would ever reply. But fast forward a near decade, and she got her childhood wish— a desk buddy.

In her excitement, Kara nearly swatted her entire tin of supplies off her desk while trying to get her pencil. When she finally got one, she got to work doodling a small stick figure underneath the mystery person’s initial writing. There was a shaded-in cape billowing underneath mini Kara, whose circle hands were on her stick figure hips. 

_ I’ll respectfully challenge your opinion. Capes are cool! Society needs to bring them back. _

Kara stared at her creation, tapping her chin with the metal ring of the pencil’s end. Then she added a postscript underneath, just like this mystery man (woman?). _ P.S. This is literally my childhood dream. What’s your name? When I’m hiding among the civilians, I’m Kara. _

She hoped this person liked her humor. If not, she was going to eat ice cream and erase everything on her desk to get rid of the embarrassment. 

Oddly enough, Kara had enough motivation to finish her first draft about Max Lord in little over two hours. She went home feeling accomplished and went to bed feeling the same way, though her nerves were still buzzing with excitement from the message she read just a while ago. 

When Kara woke up and got dressed for work the next day, her first and only thought that morning was if her desk pal had read and replied to her note.

She sat down with enough enthusiasm that it even got Snapper’s attention, who looked over at with a lazy glare before shaking his head and walking away mumbling about millennials. When he was gone, Kara looked down at her desk.

Her enthusiasm exploded by tenfold when there was, in fact, a reply. 

Their old handwritten messages were clearly erased away, no smudge or gray outlines in sight. The only thing left written on her polished desk was her stick figure. Kara made a note to ask what kind of eraser this person was using. 

_ You have a pretty name, Kara. I’m Lena. And you know what? If it looks as good as your drawing, I'll take back my statement about capes._

Lena. 

Kara’s leg was shaking underneath her desk. This time, it wasn’t from stress during a short deadline period, but from genuine excitement. She whipped out her pencil and wrote in another reply, feeling no remorse for her work-issued desk. Actually, it was much nicer to write on it than the ones at her old high school, because the polished pale color didn’t blemish her doodles. Writing on it felt like the tip of her pencil was gliding along with her fingers.

_ Do you work at CatCo? Are you a reporter like me? Sorry if I’m asking too much, I’m just so curious! Also, Lena is an _ _ amazing _ _ name. I could start calling you Lee or something. How’s your day been, desk buddy? I don’t think it could be that great if you get to work this early. _

She underlined one of her words to emphasize it, because well, Lena really was a prettier name than Kara. For a brief moment, she considered adding something like “I bet your pretty name matches your face” but quickly crossed it out. Because for one thing, that sounded a little uncalled for, and secondly, she didn’t even know what Lena _ looked _like.

Not that it mattered. Of course not. No matter what Lena did or looked like, it would never take away from the fact that she looked at Kara’s messy writing, got out a pencil, and _ wrote back _ to her. On her _ desk. _

  
A reply was scrawled in for her the next morning.

When she read it, she made a sound between a chortle and a laugh, which made Winn look at her with a weird look as he passed by to get coffee. She only waved him off and blamed it on a thing she saw on her phone, even though her phone was nowhere in sight.

_ You could say I work here. If I didn’t have any affiliation with CatCo, what does that make me for breaking into the office and writing on a random girl’s desk? And I had a feeling you were a reporter, you have way too many pens on your desk not to be. I’m a businesswoman; therefore, as sad as it sounds, I’m up even before the birds are. My day’s been good after trying to play off coming to your desk, even though I’m not supposed to, and reading your reply. So, how are you? _

_ P.S. _ _ Please _ _ don’t call me Lee. I made a face reading that. But you are more than welcome to draw more Supergirls. _

_  
_The duration of the note took half of the length of her laptop, even though Lena was trying her best to write as small as possible. Kara wasn’t complaining even for a little bit. Once the coast was clear and nobody was looking at her oddly for grinning down at her desk, Kara wrote back after erasing Lena’s note and her Supergirl doodle from the day before (and it made her a little sad to do so). 

_ Oh gosh, I didn’t even realize you have to come over to my desk whenever you want to read what I wrote back! Do you have a phone _

Kara wrinkled her nose and stilled her pencil. It was the 21st century, of course Lena had a phone. She twirled her pencil around and used its small eraser to get rid of the last five words. 

_ Do you wanna share numbers, maybe? If you’re not comfortable, that’s fine. A businesswoman? I hope you don’t get as much crap as I do in the field. Someone should make a law that getting up before sunrise is illegal. I’m good!!! I know I shouldn’t be this happy about getting a pen(cil) pal, but I am. How do you take your coffee? _

_ P.S. That’s good to know. _

Beside her message, she drew a more detailed Supergirl. It still looked like it was drawn by an eight year old, but at least it was a _ talented _eight year old. Even though she couldn’t risk putting color into her doodle and thus ruining her desk, she shaded it to the best of her ability. She drew an S on Supergirl’s chest, then drew an arrow to Supergirl’s legs with the words “Skirt or pants? Help me make a life-altering decision for Supergirl.”

She breezed through her last draft and Snapper only sent her one scalding message about her editing in the end. Winn was already suspicious to begin with, but his suspicions only towered higher when she smiled genuinely at him and waved. 

He went over to her with a coffee in his hand, pointing a finger at her. “Okay, I know for a _ fact _ that something’s up,” he accused. He pointed at her smile, then back to her eyes. “You smile a lot. But you never smile like _ that_.”

“Like— like what?”

  
“Like that!” He tossed his hand up in exclamation, then dropped it as his side with an apologetic smile when an older man nudged past him with a glare. “Look, Kara, you know how good I am with keeping secrets. So what is it?” Winn leaned closer to her, and his voice dropped to a low whisper.

  
Laughing nervously, Kara slid her laptop closer to herself, hiding away her message from sight. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Winn narrowed his eyes, then held her gaze for a long moment. “Are you… seeing someone?” he inquired with a tilt of the head. When Kara’s eyes widened and she quickly blubbered to defend herself, he pointed his finger back at her. “Aha! You are! Who is it? Is it James? Is it Mike? Is it—?”

“Winn! I’m not seeing anybody,” she said, leaning closer to him across her desk. Her hands were pressed tightly over her laptop keyboard, paranoid that Winn was going to pull it out and discover her little secret. “I’m just trying to focus more on the good things in life. That’s all.”

He still looked unconvinced. “What— what made you suddenly think like _ that?”_ he asked, baffled. “Two days ago, you were moaning to me about how much Snapper sucks. Hell, two days ago, I would’ve thought you’d dive at the chance of being Miss Grant’s assistant again!”

“I’m making a difference with my writing, Winn. Bad day or not,” she pointed out.

  
“Right, right.”

He was forced out of her sight when someone shooed him away. Kara settled back into her chair, picking up her coffee and taking a sip. She smiled behind the lid while she typed away on her newest assignment.

Like clockwork, there was a new reply on her desk. Kara was initially worried that someone would see their interactions, but Lena had clearly thought the same. Her reply was underneath Kara’s moved stack of folders. 

_ As tempted as I am to exchange numbers, I have to say no. I like writing on your desk too much, and my work always has me wrapped up all day long. _

There was a sad face beside her note. Something in the back of Kara’s head itched at her. It felt like a lie. But lie or not, Kara didn’t really mind. It was Lena’s decision, and they literally just met three days ago. 

_ Sometimes talking to a group of old bald men drains all the energy out of you, but you get used to it. I think you’d be happy to know that I’m 100% confident I’m the smartest person in every room full of men in suits. I like my coffee black. What do you usually crave for, Kara? _

As usual, Kara’s message from before had been erased. Her newest Supergirl doodle was still there, with the edition of a nicely sketched out belt around Supergirl’s waist. The word “pants” had been circled and “skirt” was sharply crossed out with an X. It made her smile.

Even though the belt was beyond details and was sketched out to look as closely to Kara’s childish doodle (though it still stood out like a sore thumb), Kara could tell that the woman had an eye for beauty. Maybe she was an architect? College art major? 

_ Potstickers! Every edible thing in this world has a place in my heart but potstickers _ _ is_ _ my heart. And you take your coffee black? I could never do that to myself. It’s three sugars or nothing. How about you, what’s your favorite food/craving, Lena? _

As promised, Kara drew another Supergirl next to her writing. This time, Supergirl was flying, her wavy gray hair and cape billowing in the air and her arms were outstretched in front of her. Supergirl was winking at the recipient, and a speech bubble connected from her mouth. “On my way to save Lena from danger!” the speech bubble read.

  
The next day, Kara almost had a heart attack when she saw a folded white paper bag on her desk. When she got closer, she realized that the label on the bag was from her favorite Chinese restaurant across CatCo. Underneath the still steaming food was Lena’s message.

_ A superhero needs to eat, after all. Also, I’ll eat anything that isn’t salmon. What’s your latest project on? Don’t hold anything back from me! _

She was slightly disappointed in Lena’s short message, though realized that Lena hadn’t left her desk in a hurry. Beside Kara’s Supergirl doodle was a beautiful drawing the size of Kara’s hand. A pencil drawing of Supergirl, her face ambiguously drawn than the rest of her intricately shaded supersuit, while bridal carrying a woman. It took her a moment to realize that it was probably _ Lena. _

Lena had her hair up in a ponytail, swooning and holding onto Supergirl’s neck with a little smile. She had a killer jawline, with beautiful features and a dress that was meant to kill. It was obvious that Lena put more effort into drawing Supergirl’s suit and wavy locks than her own anatomy, but it still took Kara’s breath away. Did she really look like that in real life?

If she did, Kara had to practice making sure she didn’t stumble on her words for the day they met.

Winn came by her desk an hour later, nearly coughing on his slushie when he caught Kara grinning over at him with her face stuffed with Chinese food. 

“Where did— how— you have a fifteen minute break, how do you have enough time to get _ food? _” he asked in bewilderment.

“How did you get your slushie?” she challenged.

“I asked a friend to get it for me,” he said. Then frowned when Kara kept shoveling more food into her mouth, and it deepened when he caught sight of the three other boxes of Chinese food on the corner of her desk. “New question: how did you have enough pocket change to get four different containers?”

Kara shrugged. “A friend got it for me.”

* * *

After a week of exchanging words with Lena, Kara was undoubtedly ready to take a bullet for her.

  
Even though their interactions were sometimes short, quick to the point, or simple paragraphs accompanied by doodles, Kara felt like she knew Lena better than she knew herself. Lena was so down to Earth, so smart, so _ selfless— _Kara could feel every willpower of hers slip away with every word Lena wrote in her messy loopy writing.

After the potsticker incident, Kara complained to her about not being able to get Lena anything hot because it would turn cold by the time she got to it. Lena responded by telling her that she didn’t mind, that she’d just pick it up from their desk the next day. That was the first response that made Kara pause. 

She called it “our desk”. Our. It took Kara a couple minutes to reboot herself.

After that, Kara expressed her wishful thinking of being able to journal all their interactions and drawings, because erasing it the next day felt like a bigger sin than pushing someone off a cliff. Lena responded by placing a black leatherbound book on their desk, shiny and unused and the spine creaked satisfyingly as Kara opened it up to see Lena’s short message of _ How about now? _with a beautiful blueprint-esque drawing of Supergirl’s supersuit. 

When Winn caught her writing in it and she offhandedly told him it was her new note-taking journal, he promptly told her that he was certain the notebook was on sale for six hundred dollars for its crisp pages. Kara just rolled her eyes and swatted his hand away when he tried grabbing it to take a closer look. 

They haven’t abandoned their desk writing though. When one of them needed clear attention on an amazing song or something important, it was written right into the desk with heavy exclamation marks and underlined words. 

Since the pages of the notebook weren't lined, their words to each other were sometimes lopsided. It was endearing to see the loop of Lena’s every letter and flipping through the pages to read them again when she was bored. They shared song recommendations, movies to see, wishes to see certain landmarks— every time Kara put a pen down on the paper, it was like talking to an old friend.

For a while, when Kara took a couple minutes to write to Lena and draw a little Supergirl, it was like sitting on a long, fluffy couch with her and having a nice drink about their long day. Snapper’s remarks no longer affected her, she woke up with a smile and Lena’s reply on her mind, and felt like herself for the first time in months.

One night, during one of her rare bad days (they’ve been getting rarer and rarer since interacting with Lena), Kara spilled about her problems. It took two whole pages and a warning in the beginning telling Lena that she didn’t have to read it all because she just needed to vent. Kara spilled _ everything, _ all the way from her birth parents’ death, to her estranged cousin who never visited her anymore, to her wonky love life, to her off the radar sister, to _ everything. _

She considering ripping out the pages entirely when she got it all down on paper, embarrassed that she basically told Lena everything that had been plaguing her since the beginning. But she needed to get home, and she was tired, and Lena wouldn’t read it all anyway, right?

The next day, her office was overflowing with flowers. 

Flowers of every type, from pink carnations to yellow roses and violets. Snapper had to step over the bouquets on the floor to get to her, red-faced and demanding what happened. Just as confused, Kara could only shrug at him. He stepped back and shook his head, not wanting to delve into further trouble with her.

She gave away the bouquets to coworkers and a very baffled, very eyebrow-raised-in-suggestion Winn Schott. “I thought you weren’t seeing someone?” he drawled, making a point to look at every flower pot on her desk. 

Kara felt her ears burn at its tips. She cleared her throat. “I’m— I’m not,” she said matter-of-factly, handing a bouquet of carnations to a smiling intern. She didn’t look at Mike from across the room. 

“Then pray tell, Kara, who would be insane enough to send you _ twelve dozen _flowers?” he said with a hint of sarcasm.

“I don’t know!” She looked away from Winn to make her blush less prominent. “Maybe— maybe someone who really likes my writing on the CatCo blog? I’m always on the trending list.”

“Blushing! I see blushing!” Winn got up in her face, gaping further when she cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses. “Oh my _ god, _ you _ are _seeing somebody! Or about to. Are they courting you? Do you like them back? Does Alex know, because if I have to pretend I don’t know about it before she does, I need to know so—”

“Winn, I’m serious, I don’t know who these are from.” Kara pivoted on a heel to look at him, hands on her hips. She inhaled, shrugging and looking lost to make her point. “I wouldn’t lie or hide things from you. You know that, right?”

Winn slumped. “Fine. You’re right.” He lifted up his small bouquet in his hands. “But whoever gave them to you, tell them thanks from me. I always wanted to brighten up my desk. I would’ve preferred a succulent but—”

“Just get out of here,” Kara said with a laugh. He scurried off with a grin and a whistling tune. 

When all but one bouquet was left on her desk, a beautiful arrangement of red roses and arguably the biggest of the bunch, Kara finally let herself sink into her chair and cracked open the sleek notebook that Lena put on their desk a week ago. 

She had an inkling on who sent the flowers. But there was no florist to ask, no note on any of the flowers. 

_ I was going to write a note on the bouquets but I was worried someone was going to take them and find a very unsolicited love letter from me. _

Kara’s heart jumped in her chest. _ Love, as in friends. Love letters because we’ve been writing back and forth to each other. Calm down, _she scolded herself. 

  
_ You didn’t have to spill your heart out like that to me and I know there has to be a specific type of pain with you that made you want to write everything out. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met, Kara. For you to smile and be happy the way you are right now while you have every right to be angry at the world— to say it’s humbling is an understatement at best. If you ask me, Supergirl has nothing on you. _

_ I hope you (and your office) liked the flowers. And the shiny NSYNC CD you always wanted. _

Below the words was a heart and a curved L of Lena’s signature. True to her word, there was a CD in her drawer, out of its clear plastic but looking like it was freshly bought. Kara could hardly recall the time she mentioned her favorite boy band to Lena. How did she _ remember?_

Kara felt her heart melt like a candle after going over every word once more. She reread it over and over, maybe up to ten times, before flipping to the next page and writing the first thing on her mind. 

_ I don’t even want to know how much all of this cost you because I’d be more than obliged to want to repay it. You’re an incredible friend, Lena. Remember when you told me your guilty pleasure is Shakespeare? I have a quote that reminds me of you. _

_ “I do love nothing in the world so well as you—is not that strange?” _

Was she a fool for reading Shakespeare in her lonely apartment every night ever since Lena told her, feeling like every old timey word was a hug around Lena’s arms and every soliloquy was Lena’s nose burying into her hair? Was she a fool for bookmarking every quote that reminded her of Lena, of the girl whose words and only words had made her dive headfirst into some kind of blind puppy love? 

Probably. 

Lena’s reply the next day was short and sweet. Her loops in her letters felt unbearably heartwarming, and Kara couldn’t help but wonder for the umpteenth time how Lena looked as she wrote down her words. Does she crinkle her nose like Kara? 

_ “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” _

_ Everything I give you is a gift, Kara. You never have to pay me back. That’s what friends are for. _

Kara was jolted out of her daydreams when Snapper threw down a stack of papers on her desk, snapping his fingers at her to get up and do some real reporting. Friends. She kept repeating the word in her head until it was like a mantra. That's what _ friends _are for. 

She said that to Lena a couple pages ago, when Lena thanked her for not judging her about her paranoia about something ambiguous in her work’s study. A couple pages ago, it felt like a completely natural thing to say and Lena took it in stride.

So why was she reeling over Lena’s recited quote to her, wondering if she was complementing Kara’s quote or saying it with borderline meanings, like Shakespeare?

In the dim lighting of her quaint apartment, Kara scrolled through a website on her phone to find Lena’s favorite band and the prices for their vinyl records. Not that it mattered— twenty dollars or two hundred, she would add it to her cart in a heartbeat. That’s what friends are for.

* * *

Winn found out about two weeks later, when Kara was so accustomed to leaving their notebook open next to her laptop to glance at Lena’s words like the woman was physically by her side, cheering her on.

He only took a quick glance at Lena’s upside words before Kara quickly snatched it up, shutting it close and putting it in a drawer with slightly shaking hands and a plastered smile. “What do you want, Winn?” she asked him, wincing slightly when her words came out a bit sharp.

  
“That wasn’t your handwriting.” His eyebrows were slowly unknitting itself to shoot upwards, like a light bulb had gone off in his head. “Wait.”

“Winn—”

“That’s the person you’ve been talking to this entire time!” Winn’s mouth hung open, his eyes glazed over as he connected every dot from the past week. “I _ knew _when you looked down you weren’t looking at your phone! You were looking at your desk! You were… wait… desk…?”

_ “Winn—” _

“Seriously!” He threw his arms up. People around them were starting to stare, but Winn was on a roll and Kara averted their gazes by placing a flat palm close to her eyes. “You got someone that’s been writing love notes on your _ desk? _I mean, they’ve got to work here. Right?” He made a face. “But no one’s even close to your type. You told me yourself you’d rather choke on a bagel and die than go on a date with—”

_ “WINN!” _ He looked over at her flushed face and muttered a “Oh, right. My bad.” She shook off her embarrassment and cleared her throat, pressing down on a thumbnail and playing with it. “I’m not _ seeing _anyone. I’m serious. She’s just a friend.”

Winn somehow looked even more confused. “Wait. What? But you— whenever you look down at your desk or write in that journal, you look like someone just dumped a thousand potstickers on you.”

Kara shrugged, not knowing what to say. “She— okay.” She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then motioned for Winn to sit down on a chair next to her desk that someone left. He complied, resting his chin on his palm and looking at her expectantly. “You’re not allowed to say anything until I’m done talking, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

So she spilled to him about Lena. If she was being honest, it felt good to finally tell someone. She knew that Alex would be on her ass about talking to strangers, even though she was in her mid-twenties and living in an apartment paid entirely by herself. Winn listened intently, nodding along and making faces at certain parts, but kept his promise of staying reticent. Kara even pulled out her journal again at some point, to show him some passage to make a point.

When she was done and motioned for him to ask her his onslaught of questions, she was surprised to hear that he only had one. 

“How come you two haven’t talked yet?”

“We have.” She looked at him in confusion.

“No no no, like— talk-talk. In person. In _ text, _I don’t know. Something that isn’t your desk or a clearly expensive journal?”

Kara wanted to hide under her desk. “She, um, said she didn’t want to,” she said quietly, each word quieter than the last. She tried not to meet Winn’s startled look. 

“So you’ve been writing to each other, for an entire month, and you neither of you know what the other looks like, sounds like, or anything besides your handwriting?”

Kara shrugged with a little smile that said _ oops. _

"And you've never asked why she comes to your desk everyday?" said a mildly annoyed voice behind her.

Kara nearly jumped out of her skin. Putting a hand over her heart and exhaling hard, she turned her chair around to face her sister. “Alex!” she said, half accusing and half eager. “What are doing here?”

Alex had a hand on her hip, her other hand gripped around a coffee cup that stayed steaming. “I came here to surprise you, actually. I felt bad about missing out on the game nights.” Then she frowned, glancing at the hand placed protectively on top of a journal, then back to Kara’s sheepish smile. “Then I heard you both talking and I felt like some eavesdropping would do me some good.”

  
Grimacing, Kara tried not to think about how long Alex had been listening to her. 

Winn hugged her sister in greeting, jumping back with a little noise when Alex gave him a warning tap on the shoulder. “Since you’re here, you can help me scold Kara,” Winn told her, rubbing his hands together like a maniacal supervillain. Kara tried not to roll her eyes. “I mean, seriously! Tell her, Alex.”

Kara looked over at him, slightly peeved. “Tell me what?” 

“Oh my god, it’s worse than I thought,” Winn said somberly.

Alex hit his stomach playfully, though Winn’s grimace after the punch was 100% genuine. She placed her coffee down, turning her glare away from Winn to look over at Kara with a more sobered look. “Remember how you said, way back when we were in high school, that you’d be the happiest girl alive if you somehow got a pen pal? That you’d buy colorful tape and glitter just to impress them?”

Kara had no idea where she was going with it. Tentatively, she muttered a “Yeah?” while she drew her attention to letting a pencil roll over her fingers.

“I don’t see any glitter, Kara, but I can tell when you’re happy.”

At that, the trio fell into an awkward silence. Kara shifted uncomfortably, looking down at her pencil while she tapped it incessantly on the desk to avoid looking at Alex. Finally, when Winn cleared his throat, she decided to speak up. “A lot of things make me happy,” she said evenly.

Alex stared at her for a long while, tapping a finger on her thigh before straightening up and exhaling. She shared a look with Winn. 

“If I didn’t know you any better, I would’ve thought you were in love with Lena,” Winn joked.

Kara laughed with him, though it sounded artificial even to her. Because it’s impossible to love someone you’ve never met, right? It’s not possible. 

But after forty pages and dappled smudges on her desk, Kara felt like Lena’s handwriting was engraved on her heart. 

Alex put a hand on her shoulder and they shared a hug, before Alex drew her in for a kiss on the forehead and a promise to be back at her apartment after her shift to catch up with each other. Kara smiled genuinely at her, relief hitting her like a sack of bricks for the first time since Alex stepped foot into CatCo.

When the two were gone, Kara slid her journal right next to her laptop and fiddled with the spine as she read through her work. She still hadn’t replied to Lena’s writing, nor read the entire thing, because she loved reading it all at the end of the day as a reward to herself for finishing her work. Outside, the city skyline was turning into a beautiful orange, birds flocking overhead and buildings already standing out with their luminous windows.

When the stars came out and Kara’s self control was waning, she finally cracked open the journal to the latest page, bookmarked by a pink sticky note. She read Lena’s passage with careful eyes, a stark contrast to the way she sped through every paragraph of CatCo’s works. Every one of Lena’s letters were written in a way that made her eyes follow languidly, like a snake charmer easing a reptile out with the sway of the body.

Lena told her about her day at her work, about how she felt bad that her friend had to book every one of the twenty board meetings she had (Kara was still baffled that Lena had such a good friend to do things like that for her on a day to day basis). She also told Kara about how, during the past few weeks, she got through each boring conference by thinking of _ her. _

She told Kara about how some of the men in these meetings would advocate for the wrong moral things, things she strictly didn’t tolerate. Things she knew Kara would never tolerate, and that was why she gained the courage to speak so boldly. 

_ You believe that everything is good and kind in the world. Whenever I think I’m making the wrong decision, I think about how you always take my side, how you always believe in me. That’s one of the things I love about you. _

Kara’s breath hitched. Her fingertip brushed over the last sentence with a painstaking ease. Maybe she was looking too deep into it, but the word “love” looked like it was written much harder on the page. There was no underline, no clear emphasis on the word, but it was the only thing on the page that Kara was focused on.

She was staring at it for so long that she only recognized the faint outline of Winn’s cardigan when he was a couple feet away. Her cheeks feeling much hotter, she snapped the book closed and tucked it away. She feigned a surprised smile when Winn came over to her desk.

  
“What, too comfy in your chair?” he teased. He held up his shoulder bag, then pointed at the clock directed behind Kara’s head. Kara craned her neck to look, then swore under her breath when she saw the time. He laughed, then said, “Snapper would appreciate you staying here, at least.”

  
“Alex is waiting for me back home,” she said hurriedly, lifting herself up from the chair to slip into her jacket and shut her laptop closed. “I should’ve been more careful with the time.”

“It’s alright.” Winn shrugged at her. “She’d understand, I think?”

“She’s gonna kill me,” she groaned, shoving her things into her purse. Alex wasn’t the impatient type, but she’s never going to hear the end of it from her about being punctual and responsible with her job. 

They were out of the door to CatCo in a minute. Since they lived a couple blocks away from each other, they always ended up walking home together. They chatted about their day, then Winn went off track as usual to talk about a new comic book issue he was reading about recently. 

When Kara tuned him out for a moment, nodding her head in slight understanding, she realized something. 

“Fuck!”

“Whoa.” Winn blinked and stopped with her when she pivoted on her heel, back to the direction where they came from. “Do you kiss your mother with that—? Kara! Where are you going?” he called after her, watching in disbelief as she sprinted back to the CatCo building with two inch heels. 

“Don’t wait up for me! I just forgot to get something!” 

Still confused, Winn watched her take off, then grumbled under his breath and turned around to walk home by himself. Kara had already forgotten about him when she took her fifth step.

The building was still thankfully accessible when she came inside. There were a few people still working, mostly the night owls that always looked dead tired when they clocked in, but there was nobody else except for the custodian. Some of the lights in the office were turned off to conserve energy.

Her cubicle lights were turned off as well. Fortunately, someone had kept a light on nearby, which was enough to see faint outlines of the things on her desk. She nearly lunged for the black leatherbound book on her desk, flipping it open with an intensity that rivaled Winn’s whenever he had an IT guy revelation.

She picked up her pencil, darting her eyes for a big enough spot to write a half-assed paragraph about the first thing that came to her mind, when her heart lurched in surprise. 

There was another response, not by her, underneath Lena’s writing.

_ Sorry, I must’ve come off too strong on that one. Potstickers or Big Belly Burger for tomorrow? _

_ “What?” _ she said under her breath. The custodian looked at her, and she waved back with an awkward smile. Slumping, Kara pulled back her chair and sat down, biting a nail between her teeth while she blinked slowly at the page in front of her. She was gone for maybe half an hour at most. 

Lena told her she worked at CatCo. Closely with CatCo. Well, she had some sort of _ affiliation _with CatCo— the point is, that means Lena is somewhat close to her desk. But who was it?

Was it the woman sitting across from her who gave her shrew smiles every now and again? The intern that slept with Mike a couple weeks ago? 

She sighed in frustration, grinding the tip of her pencil on the paper until she could feel her hand shake slightly. She let go some of the tension, but the sharp tip remained on the page. A dozen questions ran through her head. Before she could let it get the best of her, she answered Lena.

_ You know the answer. If I’m not asking for potstickers, you’re probably talking to an evil clone. _

Then she chewed on her lower lip until she could feel the sting. 

_ I love you too. _

Writing that down was a really, really bad idea. She felt it the moment she got every letter down on the paper. But she couldn’t stop herself from closing the book, getting up, and going home. Kara’s mind yelled at her to go back to CatCo and erase her last words, maybe cover it up with a Supergirl doodle, but she _ can’t. _

She really did love Lena. It wasn’t a question of why anymore, it was a question of _ how? _ Because the last time she checked, her crushes were always after she saw their faces, after she actually _ met _them. 

The entire thing gave her a headache and she had to drink some tea to soothe her thoughts. Alex didn’t question her somber look, but patted her back when they were situated on the couch together. When her body was finally done being jittery and Alex was long gone, Kara exhaled and dragged herself back into bed. 

* * *

The next morning, Kara had formulated a plan. She tested the waters and told Winn, who was more than willing to help her. 

The volume of her voice was a little over regular speaking volume while she talked about going out to catch a break with Winn, which made James look over at them with a baffled look. Kara ignored him and went out with Winn to get coffee across the street, then ran back to the office to check the footage on Winn’s camera. 

Nothing.

“We could leave it overnight?” Winn offered.

“No,” she said, her shoulders dropping. She gave the expensive camera back to Winn. “I don’t want her to think I was stalking her or something.”

He bid her goodbye with an apologetic smile, and Kara wrote back to Lena’s newest message with less disappointment than before. If they never found out who each other was (maybe Lena _ knew_, now that Kara thought about it), it was fine with her. Completely fine.

_ Is it weird that I’m probably in love with you? I have a vague description of you, I’ve never heard your voice, we’ve never even met, but writing to you makes me feel super. _

She crossed the entire thing out with a wrinkled nose, then erased it so hard that the paper ripped. She tossed it out and started again on a new page, all of the evidence of her frustrated confession of love out of the window (or well, trash can).

“Kara. Can you come here for a moment?” 

Obediently, Kara followed James out into his office. He asked her about her newest project, then requested she went ahead and take up the interview that had to be delayed due to a sick reporter. 

“Of course,” she said, clearing her throat and hitching her glasses back up. “Who am I, um, interviewing?”

“Your new boss.” James grinned at her when her eyes widened. “And you’ll never believe how it happened. There was another company buying up CatCo’s shares, and he even—”

“Yeah! Yeah, I heard. Edge Global, right?”

“Exactly.” He tossed a stress ball at her and pressed his palms against the desk behind him. “He was _ this _close to buying CatCo, until another company stepped in and bought the entire thing from under his nose. $750 million dollars. The public still thinks it’s a rumor.”

“Seven fifty— wow.” Kara blinked, a little taken aback. She gripped her notebook close to her chest, the one that was full of her chicken scratches from past interviews. She tossed James’ stress ball back at him. “That sounds…”

“Like the biggest story my best reporter gets to break? Definitely.” He tossed the toy from one hand to the other, looking at her with a proud smile that made Kara blush. She fiddled with the frame of her glasses. “So you’ll do it?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I will!” she said with a furrowed brow. He laughed at her indignation. “Just tell me when.”

  
“Tomorrow, one p.m.,” he told her. He pointed a finger at her in warning. “Just don’t be surprised when she bites. She’s only agreeing to the interview because this is the company she bought. No one else gets a peep from her.”

“Huh.” Now Kara was deeply interested in this story. In fact, this was the first time in a month that she felt excited for an interview. “So, who bought the company?”

James stuffed his stress ball into a deep pocket. “L-Corp.”

Kara nodded in understanding, touching base with James before striding out of his office with a pen tapping gently against her chin. She heard of L-Corp a long time ago, when they made big headlines during a certain press conference. They rebranded from their former name and their CEO relocated from Metropolis to National City. Other than that, Kara had no recollection of anything else concerning the company.

  
She almost squeaked when she opened their notebook and saw the two sentences Lena had recently written down. 

_ I hope you don’t mind that I’ve started to date our entries. I want something to look back on in the future. _

The fact that Lena wanted to keep writing and keep the journal for memories made Kara feel a lot giddier than she had a right to be. 

Kara drew a little happy Supergirl and Lena in the corner.

She went home after a couple rounds of drinks with her friends, feeling lightheaded and tipsy from all the drinking. She wasn’t a lightweight, that’s no doubt, but drinking games were _ brutal _for her. 

She groaned, smothering her face in the pillow. She reached out to her side, trying to find a plastic square on her end table, before successfully finding it near the corner. She pawed at it and held it close to her face, squinting through tilted glasses in the dark. 

  
Kara opened the case of the CD, before the paper covering slipped and the plastic hit her square in the face. She swore, swatting at her face to recollect her dignity and the NSYNC album that held a place in her heart.

  
Her lamp lit up her apartment in a soft amber glow, and Kara adjusted her glasses to fit comfortably on her face. She blinked twice and looked down at the opened case, then proceeded to fit the sleeve back on before something caught her eye.

There was writing on the inside of the white sleeve. Black sharpie, in familiar loopy, messy writing.

A phone number.

_ Lena’s _phone number.

“What the hell?” She sat up on her bed, staring at the thick writing with a slackened jaw. There was more writing underneath her thumb, and she swiped it aside to take a look.

_ Call me sometime? _

“What the _ HELL?”_

She could hear Alex and Eliza simultaneously telling her to watch her mouth all the way from her apartment. 

* * *

Kara couldn’t bring herself to call Lena that night. She definitely was planning to, when she wasn’t hungover and dying from a throbbing headache and a sandpaper tongue. Winn ruffled her hair affectionately, wincing as he let raw yolk go down the hatch.

“Maybe going out for drinks on a work day wasn’t the best idea, huh?” he said sarcastically.

“It was your idea. Don’t blame me.” She sat up with a groan, feeling her lower back burn with the effort. She put her hands behind her and cracked her spine in satisfaction. “Plus, I have that interview with the L-Corp CEO in an hour. So thanks, Winn.”

“No problem,” he said easily, grinning at her when she shot him a look. He sat back on his roller chair, not seeming to care that Snapper could take one look at them and call him off. “Did you look her up last night?”

“No! That’s weird!” She made a face at him.

  
  
“What are you talking about? A lot of reporters do it. James does it. Nia does it. I do it, and I’m not even a reporter.”

“You do it because you want to check out a girl, not because it’s work related.” She snorted when he made a face back at her. “Besides, it’s more fun if I didn’t know anything.”

He snickered. “See, now _that’s_ weird.”

Kara kicked him under the desk, which made him hiss and nearly drop his glass of egg yolks. The fact is, she _ did _do some light research last night— but she would rather chug two glasses of his homemade hangover recipe than admit that to him. Lena Luthor, successor of the L-Corp business and estranged sister of the incarcerated Lex Luthor. 

There was a thousand Lenas in National City. She looked it up. Thus, no useless hoping and forlornly looking out the window for her.

“Hey, Kara,” Winn said, snapping her out of her little daydream.

“What’s up?”

“Are you gonna stop being a baby and call her or what?”

  
  
Kara gave him a sharp look. He snickered from behind his glass, but the wrinkles in his eyes betrayed his shit-eating grin. “See, I _ knew _ I shouldn’t have told you! _ I knew _it!” she said accusingly. 

Winn put his hand up in surrender, lowering his glass from his lips. “I’m just looking out for you,” he said defensively, “just imagine what Alex would say if she was here. Do you prefer her way or mine?”

She grumbled in response, sinking a bit farther into her chair with fingers flat on her keyboard. She stared back at a half finished document, Winn’s little smile in the corner of her eye. He was refusing to stop sitting on her desk. “I was thinking of… you know, calling her tonight?” she said meekly. When Kara met his gaze, he was looking unimpressed.

“Uh huh,” he said flatly. “Tonight-tonight or tonight-as-in-never-tonight?” When Kara groaned openly at him, he chuckled and fondly ruffled her hair, a glare immediately pointed his way. Avoiding her scowl, he added, “I don’t see why you can’t just shoot your shot and text her right now. What’s the worst thing that could happen? ‘Oh dearest Kara, I’ve awaited your reply for many moons. What has kept you so? Was it my big bosom or—?’”

“She does _ not _talk like that,” Kara retorted, pushing back his nose with the back end of a pen. She couldn’t help but snicker though.

“Any person who reads Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson for fun most _ definitely _talks like that.”

“Look, I’ll do it tonight, alright?” she said, half annoyed. Even though Winn made a good point about her text procrastination, she wasn’t going to budge any time soon. For one thing, Kara had no idea what she was going to say. Writing in a leatherbound book and drawing squiggles on her desk was somehow much more easier than being faced with an empty chat log and hovering thumbs. “I’m just kinda busy today.”

  
  
Winn hummed and took another sip of his egg yolk drink. “Right, right. Like the interview you were supposed to be going to five minutes ago?”

“What?” She checked the big analog clock behind her. “Shoot!”

Winn yelled something at her as she quickly dashed her way out of the building, something between a good luck and a joke that Kara was thankful she didn’t fully hear. Her messenger bag jostled on her shoulder as she ran across the street, wildly finding the latest bus route that would take her to the building of her new boss. Thankfully, Kara had long enough legs to flag down the bus driver. 

She didn’t let herself calm down until she was stepping down from the bus and standing in front of the main floor of L-Corp. It was an odd experience, to say the least. Everyone around her were in suits or pencil skirts, and the polished pillars of the building were ten times shinier than anything Kara had ever seen. 

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, then made her way inside. 

An Asian woman was on the phone when she came in. People shouldered their way around, not sparing her a single glance their way. When Kara approached the woman, taking note of the glass plate bearing her assistant status on the long table, she didn’t even look up. 

Kara cleared her throat. Finally, she looked up and gave Kara a polite practiced smile. “Are you here for an appointment?” she asked. 

“I, um,” Kara stammered. She cleared her throat again and started over, shifting her feet from side to side and doing her best to dispel the sudden awkwardness that blanketed over her. “I’m Kara Danvers from CatCo Magazine. I’m here for the afternoon interview?”

She looked at Kara over her glasses for a moment, then took a quick glance at her computer before standing up and ushering Kara to Lena Luthor’s office.

“Stay here until your appointment, and please knock before you come in. Miss Luthor hates intrusive guests,” the secretary advised her. She opened a big door to show Kara a waiting room closest to the office and quickly left before Kara could even open her mouth to thank her.

Feeling the awkwardness come back, Kara adjusted her glasses and took a seat along the empty wall. 

She swung her feet, folding her hands on her lap in an attempt to look less childish. Checking her phone, she quickly realized that she was fifteen minutes early. It was better than being late, at least.

Kara tried not to groan when she checked the percentage on her phone. It was ten percent, mostly due to the fact that her charger had been frustratingly hard to deal with. So she tucked away her phone and collected her composure, saving the last scraps of battery for emergencies.

She was _ bored. _

There was no music, no fun paintings to look at, no magazine stand anywhere in the waiting room. Watching paint dry would be much more interesting than this.

If she strained her ears enough, she could hear the faint voice of a woman talking. She sounded cool and composed, though with a bite that Kara had heard Cat use with people she was ordering around. It was the “no more bullshit” voice, as Winn put it. But somehow, Kara felt… _ lulled _to her voice. 

With Cat, Kara had some sort of Pavlovian effect to her voice. The moment she opened her mouth, Kara’s back would straighten up, her entire body would be ready to bolt out the door to get whatever latte Miss Grant had a craving for. 

This woman, Lena Luthor, she definitely commanded the same respect. Yet her voice was the same consistency as honey.

Kara tried to shake it off. She muted the woman’s voice from her ears as best as she could, scolding herself for falling into a siren’s trap. Or more so a business woman’s trap, but both were one and the same anyway.

Her eyes caught the hanged achievements on the wall opposite from her. They were framed beautifully in golden cuts, arranged in perfect rows and columns. Her boredom got the best of her, and Kara found herself standing up to read the fine print on the crisp papers.

She quickly found out that Lena graduated from MIT as the top of her class. She had a million identical documents recognizing her work in the science field, as well as large sums of donations sent to children’s hospitals and not-for-profit organizations. 

With every word she read on paper, Kara was quickly finding herself liking Lena a lot more than the rest of her family. Somehow, she also understood why Lena would spend so much of her time donating and volunteering her time.

She was desperately trying to separate the vice-like grip the public had on her. Kara wasn’t _ blind _to it— she was aware enough to know that people didn’t trust her for what her family did. It resonated something deep in her heart, empathy that went beyond a regular person’s experience.

Something else swiftly caught her attention. Though many of the documents had to be signed by the CEO herself, there was one that had Lena’s undivided attention. Lena wrote something underneath a certificate for buying a children’s hospital. Her curved writing was written in black ink, blotting the paper to show the true authenticity of the message. 

It was only two sentences, quick and right to the point, about how honored she felt to take the responsibility of the new Luthor Family Children Hospital. 

Kara felt a hand shake by her side. Like it was possessed, she reached up and pressed the pad of her finger over Lena’s signature. 

Loopy. Messy. The only thing missing was the “xx” she always, _ always _clumsily scrawled after every message and every doodle she gave to Kara. 

Her phone was out of her pocket in an instant. In the other room, Lena’s voice was somehow getting louder, laughing joyfully at something the recipient on the other line said. She was closing her phone call, and somehow that made Kara’s rash decision to become fueled like tossing a torch into an oil factory.

Kara punched in the number that she memorized last night, when she poured over every number painstakingly written on her favorite album by her favorite band. A random fact that Lena had remembered, had _ listened _to. 

Her phone rang quietly in her hand, and she held it up to her ear with a gulp. Her heart seemed to beat to the ring of her phone, slow but achingly hard against her rib cage. Lena, blocked from her view by a stupid set of stupid white doors, had suddenly gone quiet. She muttered something too quietly for Kara to hear, and Kara was walking slowly to the door like a rope was tugging her by the waist. 

The double doors burst open, swinging only inches from Kara’s face.

Right in front of Kara was Lena Luthor, dressed to kill in a black dress that was entirely formal, besides the cut in the chest that indulged in a staggering clavicle. She looked even more dazzling than the rushed drawing of Supergirl holding onto her, and Kara wondered if sweet Aphrodite herself had blessed this woman.

She didn’t realize she was staring and biting her lip until Lena cleared her throat, holding a phone over crossed wrists in front of her.

“Oh. Hi!” she squeaked out. 

Her voice echoed from Lena’s phone.

“I— I was, um, here for your interview with me— with CatCo!” she stammered, and every word started pouring out of her mouth, quicker than the last. “And I swear I was going to call you. Actually, I only got your phone number last night! I never even bothered to slip off the sleeve, I don’t think a regular person does that, but then again you can see the inside of the sleeve when you open the CD and— well, that was really smart of you but I think I fell down the stairs as a baby and— gosh, you’re really pretty— even prettier than you draw yourself, sorry is that Louis Vuitton? You make really good sketches—”

Lena was gawking at her the same way she was. When Lena finally answered, right after hanging up on their unneeded call, she slowly said, “Well, you’re a lot more… muscular than you draw yourself to be.”

“It's, uh…” Kara tried smiling sheepishly. “To hide Supergirl’s identity?”

* * *

**Kara DAMNverse [2:06 A.M.]:** It’s our anniversary!!!

**Kara DAMNverse [2:06 A.M.]:** HELL YEAH

**Lena Luthor [2:10 A.M.]:** Darling, go to sleep. It’s two in the morning.

**Kara DAMNverse [2:11 A.M.]:** You’re breaking my heart. :(

**Lena Luthor [2:12 A.M.]:** You know we have a reservation at six, right? I know how much you like their food. That’s why you need to get some sleep, so you don’t accidentally blow bubbles into their miso soup while you nap.

**Kara DAMNverse [2:13 A.M.]:** Hey!!

**Kara DAMNverse [2:13 A.M.]:** That was one time!!!

**Kara DAMNverse [2:14 A.M.]:** And I can think of other things that are better to eat so

**Lena Luthor [2:15 A.M.]:** Well, I can’t really deny you anything today, can I?

**Lena Luthor [2:16 A.M.]:** What time do you get off work tomorrow? I’m fairly certain it’s at four but I need to make sure.

**Kara DAMNverse [2:17 A.M.]:** If you’re ever wrong about anything I give you full permission to sock me in the face (which means you’re right btw)

**Kara DAMNverse [2:17 A.M.]:** Why are you asking?

**Lena Luthor [2:19 A.M.]:** I found our old notebook in the attic ❤️ and if you think it’s a good idea we could maybe cuddle up and read it together? 

**Kara DAMNverse [2:19 A.M.]:** Like you even had to ask

**Kara DAMNverse [2:19 A.M.]:** I even have pictures of the Supergirl doodles we drew on the desk 

**Lena Luthor [2:20 A.M.]:** You kept those?

**Kara DAMNverse [2:21 A.M.]:** Of course I did!! I needed further proof to show people that you were so whipped for me that you snuck into CatCo every morning to write to me.

**Lena Luthor [2:22 A.M.]:** Now THAT’S low, even for you.

**Kara DAMNverse [2:23 A.M.]:** Idk boss, I could go even lower if you know what I mean

**Kara DAMNverse [2:26 A.M.]:** You haven’t replied yet so I’m assuming you either fell asleep or doing that hiding your face in your hands thing 

**Kara DAMNverse [2:26 A.M.]:** Okay, change of pace! Do you wanna know something weird?

**Lena Luthor [2:27 A.M.]:** Go for it.

**Kara DAMNverse [2:28 A.M.]:** Remember when I told you that I always wanted to feel like a superhero?

**Kara DAMNverse [2:29 A.M.]:** You’re the one that makes me feel super

**Lena Luthor [2:31 A.M.]:** Well, Kara Danvers, you are undoubtedly my favorite superhero

**Kara DAMNverse [2:32 A.M.]:** ❤️

**Stay Winning [2:41 A.M.]**: when are you two ever going to realize that you’re texting the group chat???? 

**Stay Winning [2:41 A.M.]:** and also

**Stay Winning [2:42 A.M.]:** MY EYES

**Author's Note:**

> Kara DAMNverse because damn and also she's a verse therefore the perfect analogy to Danvers, so anyway I'll show myself out
> 
> Throw tomatoes at me in the comments or my Tumblr @cosmiccaptain!


End file.
